A Protection Motivation Theory Approach to Young Adults’ Rejection Intention of Social Robots

Social robots are increasingly entering people’s daily lives. However, not everyone feels comfortable embracing social robots and we know little about the predictors of people’s intentions to reject them. This preregistered study used protection motivation theory to explore how cognitive factors related to threats from social robots influence young adults’ intentions not to reject these robots. A survey, conducted among 264 adults aged 18 to 30 who were no regular users of social robots, showed that reduced intrinsic rewards, reduced extrinsic rewards, and less self-efficacy were associated with a stronger intention to reject social robots. Theoretically, these findings demonstrate the validity of protection motivation theory to understand rejection of social robots.